The Ferrybridge Pottery is situated at Ferrybridge, by Knottingley, and only a short distance from that famous seat of the growth of liquorice, Pontefract, whose “Pomfret cakes” are so well and, indeed, universally known. The pot-works at Ferrybridge are among the largest, if they are not the very largest, in Yorkshire, and have the reputation of being well arranged and convenient. They were established in 1792, by Mr. William Tomlinson, who had for partners Mr. Seaton, an eminent banker of Pontefract; Mr. Foster, a wealthy shipowner, of Selby; Mr. Timothy Smith, a coal proprietor; and Mr. Thompson, an independent gentleman, residing at Selby. The firm was styled “William Tomlinson & Co.,” until about the year 1796, when the proprietors took into partnership Ralph Wedgwood, of Burslem, when the style was changed to that of “Tomlinson, Foster, Wedgwood, & Co.”
Ralph Wedgwood was the eldest son of Thomas Wedgwood, of Etruria (the cousin and partner of Josiah Wedgwood), and was brought up at that place under his uncle and father. He was brother to John Taylor Wedgwood, the eminent line engraver, whose works are so justly in repute.
In my “Life of Josiah Wedgwood,” I gave, for the first time, as the result of considerable research, a notice of this remarkable man, Ralph Wedgwood, and of his inventions, and his family[113] and connections.
Ralph Wedgwood, who was a man of extraordinary and varied ability, the originator of many important scientific inventions, and the author of the “Book of Remembrance,” published in 1814, in which the invention of the electric telegraph, under the name of the “fulguripolygraph,” is made known, and its benefits—precisely such as are now reaped by the public—are described, was born in 1766, and was brought up with his father at Etruria, where he received much valuable aid in chemistry, &c., from Josiah Wedgwood. He afterwards carried on business as a potter, under the style of “Wedgwood & Co.,” at the Hill Works, Burslem; but was ruined through losses during the war. While at the Hill, he prepared and presented to Queen Charlotte some fine examples of his manufacture, on the occasion of the restoration of health to the king, which were graciously accepted through the hands of Lord Cremorne. He then removed into Yorkshire, where, as I have stated, he entered into partnership with Messrs. Tomlinson & Co., of Ferrybridge, and thus again commenced business. This engagement, however, was not of long duration, his partners being dissatisfied at the large amount of breakage caused by his experiments and peculiar mode of firing, and the partnership being dissolved he retired from the concern, having succeeded in getting a thousand pounds awarded to him as his share of the business. He next removed to Bransford, near Worcester, where he issued prospectuses for teaching chemistry at schools, and thence to London, in 1803, travelling in a carriage of his own constructing, which he describes as “a long coach to get out behind, and on grasshopper springs, now used by all the mails.” This carriage was so extraordinary in its appearance as to be taken for a travelling show. While at Bransford he had been perfecting his inventions, among which was his celebrated manifold writer, which still maintains its high repute “against all comers.” One of his copying schemes, which he called a “Penna-polygraph,” that of writing with a number of pens attached to one handle, he found, on his arrival in London, had already been made by another person. His other plan, proving to be new, he called the “Pocket Secretary,” and afterwards the “Manifold Writer;” and on the 7th of October, 1806, after much discouragement and opposition, he took out a patent for this as “an apparatus for producing duplicates of writing.” In 1808 he took out a second patent for “an apparatus for producing several original writings or drawings one and at the same time, which I shall call a Pennæpolygraph, or pen and stylographic manifold writer.” An “ærial zone” was also proposed by him, and his invention was laid before the Admiralty, but judging from the following extract from a letter now lying before me, the invention was not considered to be a very feasible one. “The ærial zone is in proper hands if it is laid before the Admiralty, for there does not seem to be any greater likelihood of its becoming an article of general use than there is of the ladies leaving off muslin because some lose their lives every year by its use.”[114]
In 1806, Ralph Wedgwood established himself at Charing Cross, and soon afterwards his whole attention began to be engrossed with his scheme of the electric telegraph, first invented by his father, Thomas Wedgwood, which, in the then unsettled state of the kingdom—in midst of war, it must be remembered—he considered would be of the utmost importance to the government. In 1814, having perfected his scheme, he submitted his proposal to Lord Castlereagh, and most anxiously awaited the result. His son Ralph having waited on his lordship for a decision as to whether government would accept the plan or not, was informed that “the war being at an end, the old system was sufficient for the country!” The plan, therefore, fell to the ground, until Professor Wheatstone, in happier and more enlightened times, again brought the subject forward with such eminent success. The plan, thus brought forward by Ralph Wedgwood in 1814 (and, as I have stated, he received the first idea from his father), was thus described by him in a pamphlet entitled, “An Address to the Public, on the advantages of a proposed introduction of the Stylographic Principle of writing into general use; and also of an improved species of Telegraphy, calculated for the use of the Public as well as for the Government.” The pamphlet is dated May 29, 1815.
Ralph Wedgwood from Charing Cross removed successively to Piccadilly, and Southampton Street, Strand, where he continued producing his “Pocket Secretary” in large numbers, and did a profitable business. The advantages he gained were, however, lost by his researches concerning the electric telegraph, and in the end his business gradually decayed. He was a man of too eccentric and visionary nature for the ordinary pursuits of life, and was thus led into the speculative ideas rather than the substantialities of worldly existence. Among his schemes was one for the founding of an universal language, over which he held a lengthy and elaborate correspondence with Percy Bysshe Shelley and other men of the day. He died at Chelsea in 1837. He was three times married—first to Mary Yeomans, of Worcester, by whom he had issue Ralph Wedgwood, of Barnes and Cornhill; secondly, to Sarah Taylor; and thirdly, to Anne Copeland, by each of whom also he had issue.
After the dissolution of the partnership at Ferrybridge, which took place, I believe, about 1800 or 1801, when Wedgwood ceased to have any connection with the concern, the firm of “Tomlinson & Co.” was resumed, and so continued until 1834, when it changed to “Tomlinson, Plowes, & Co.;” Mr. Plowes, of the Castleford Works, having joined the proprietary.
In 1804, the name of the manufactory, which, up to that period, had been called the Knottingley Pottery, was changed to that of the Ferrybridge Pottery. This change was made for the convenience of foreign correspondence—a large foreign trade being carried on—Ferrybridge being at that time a post-town of some note, and the works being situated nearer to it than to Knottingley.
Mr. Tomlinson was succeeded by his son Mr. Edward Tomlinson, who continued the works under the firm of Edward Tomlinson & Co., until the year 1826, when he finally retired from the concern. A part of the premises were then worked for a short time by Messrs. Wigglesworth and Ingham; when the whole place was taken by Messrs. Reed, Taylor, and Kelsall, who continued the manufactory until the retirement of Mr. Kelsall, after which the works were continued by the surviving partners, Messrs. James Reed and Benjamin Taylor. Mr. Reed, who was father of Mr. John Reed, of the “Mexborough Pottery,” was a man of enlarged experience, of matured judgment, and of great practical skill; and in his time many improvements in the ware were made, and the manufacture of china introduced. He, in conjunction with his partner, took the Mexborough Pottery, and for some time carried on the two establishments conjointly. Ultimately Mr. Reed gave up the Ferrybridge works, and confined himself to those at Mexborough, while Mr. Taylor carried on the Ferrybridge works alone.
After Mr. Taylor gave up the works Mr. Lewis Woolf entered upon them as tenant for a few years, and in 1856 became the purchaser, and commenced manufacturing in his own name, and has continued from that time until the present day. In the following year, 1857, a large additional pottery was built closely adjoining, and, indeed, connected with the “Ferrybridge Pottery,” by the sons of Mr. Lewis Woolf. This new manufactory was called the “Australian Pottery,” and is still in full work. The proprietors of the joint works, “The Ferrybridge and Australian Potteries,” as they are named, now are Lewis, Sidney, and Henry Woolf, who trade under the style of “Lewis Woolf and Sons.”